Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a numerical control system coordinating with a tool catalog database.
Description of the Related Art
When it is desired to confirm the shape of a tool, information on a dimension and information on cutting conditions during machining work using a machine tool, it is common to refer to a catalog brochure or a catalog electronic file of the tool. When the confirmed shape of the tool, information on the dimension and information on cutting conditions are used at a numerical controller, a required data value is manually input through a user interface such as a manual data input apparatus provided to the numerical controller with reference to the catalog.
As an example of prior art which deals with data relating to the tool as described above, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-196809 discloses a technique of determining whether tool information is appropriate by comparing the information read out from a tool manufacturer database in which manufacturer information such as recommended machining conditions of each tool is recorded, with the tool information of a user.
Because the tool catalog is provided for each tool manufacturer or, in some cases, for each type of tool, when machining work is performed, it is necessary to prepare and bring tool catalogs respectively corresponding to a plurality of tools to be used at the machine tool to a job site, which becomes a burden for an operator. Further, there is no means for directly passing data described in the tool catalog to the numerical controller, the operator has to input the shape of the tool, the information on the dimension and the information on cutting conditions to the numerical controller while referring to the tool catalogs every time the operator controls the machine tool with the numerical controller to perform machining, which also becomes a heavy burden for the operator.
Further, because the cutting conditions described in the tool catalog are merely an example, and the cutting conditions are not necessarily optimal conditions according to a configuration of machine to be actually used for machining, the type of workpiece (material to be cut), the operator sets the cutting conditions through experiment and trial and error while referring to the cutting conditions described in the tool catalog upon actual machining. However, even if optimal cutting conditions can be obtained as a result of machining being actually executed under the cutting conditions set in this manner, because there is no means for incorporating the obtained cutting conditions into the catalog again, there is a problem that it is impossible to share know-how among workers.